Do dead dinosaurs fuel our cars? No, say the Russians

The assumption that oil and other “fossil fuels” come from dead dinosaurs and other dead matter has been an article of faith for centuries, says Financial Post writer Lawrence Solomon.

But many Russians and Ukrainians insist that oil is formed far beneath the surface of the earth, says Solomon.

Do dead dinosaurs fuel our cars? No, say the Russians

12 Sep 09 – This theory was first proposed in 1877 by Dmitri Mendeleev, who also developed the periodic table. Mendeleev’s theory was rejected by geologists of the day because he postulated that the Earth’s crust had deep faults, an idea then considered absurd.

“Today, Russians laugh at our peak oil theories as they explore, and find, the bounty in the bowels of the Earth,” says Solomon. “Russia’s reserves have been climbing steadily … 45 billion barrels in 2001, 69 billion barrels in 2004, and 80 billion barrels of late, making Russia an oil superpower that this year produced more oil than Saudi Arabia. Some oil auditing firms estimate Russia’s reserves at up to 200 billion barrels. Despite Russia’s success in exploration, most of those in the west who have known about the Russian-Ukrainian theories have dismissed them as beyond the Pale.”

That dismissal may be short-lived.

Researchers have now published evidence in Nature Geoscience that hydrocarbons can be produced 40 to 95 miles beneath the surface of the Earth, where high temperatures and intense pressures combine to generate hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons then migrate upward through cracks and faults, sometimes feeding existing pools of oil, sometimes creating entirely new ones.

“According to Sweden’s Royal Institute,” says Solomon, “fossils of animals and plants are not necessary to generate raw oil and natural gas.”

If “high temperatures and intense pressures” can generate hydrocarbons deep in the earth, why couldn’t the high temperatures and intense pressures in atmospheric explosions also generate hydrocarbons?

I think that’s exactly what happened 11,500 years ago at the mammoth extinction, when a thick layer of airborne carbon was deposited around the world. That particular carbon sure wasn’t created deep in the earth, was it?

And what about gravity?

The Russian theory has those hydrocarbons migrating upward for 40 to 95 miles, defying all known laws of gravity. It makes more sense to me that the hydrocarbons rained from the sky (as they do on Titan), and then – this time obeying the laws of gravity – migrated downward through the cracks and to every low-lying spot in the world.